.45acp alloy?

[tonysp101]

I have been having a hard time around here finding wheelweights and lead. Here's what I have 7 pounds wheel weights, about 15 pounds of pure lead, 50 pounds of 50/50. What would be a good mixture for 45acp. I will be useing a lee tl452-230gr mold.

[jmort]

I would use the 50/50 with 2% tin

[tonysp101]

The 50/50 is 50% lead 50%tin. It is from bar solder

[Walstr]

With all that Tin, expect your cast boolit to be underweight & prone to minimal shrinkage. Increasing alloying elements increases hardness & decreases weight. The as cast weight reduction is no biggy. The minimal shrinkage may make the boolits wish to stay in the mould. I've been advised that ClipWW & 2% additional Tin may be optimal, including the desired hardness.

[jmort]

I thought it was 50/50 COWW.

[mikeym1a]

The lyman formula for using COWW to make #2 is 9lb of COWW and 1lb of 50/50 solder. So, if you took your COWW, and added about 13oz of the 50/50, you should get the approximate formula of Lyman #2. If you wish to up your antimony for a bit harder boolit, you could order a bar of 'SuperHard' from rotometals. it a 70/30 alloy of lead/antimony. Do you have a copy of the Lyman Cast Boolit Handbook? If not, you should try to find one. I like the #3 for information. I find the writing style more to my taste than the #4. However, either has an excellent write-up on lead, and its alloys. Happy Casting!

[mikeym1a]

On re-reading your initial post, I see that I did not answer your primary question. I don't know what to recommend as a good alloy, as I am no expert. I do know what has worked for me. I used a mixture of 10lbs COWW and 1lb 50/50 solder. I used the lee 200gr swc/microgroove boolit. Tumble lubed, and loaded unsized. For me, this has feed without fail, and has caused no leading. I've not tested these boolits for hardness, but have had no trouble with them. Hope this helps. mike.

[Mk42gunner]

I hear you on how tough it is getting to find the wily wheel weight. The sad thing is most of us are going to have to start spending money (the horror) to get a castable alloy.

Personally, I like air cooled wheel weights for use in the .45ACP, my Lyman 452460 molds, both two and four cavities drop at 206-7 grains with the batch I am using now. With some wheel weights you may have to add some tin, the normal recommendation is for not more than 2%.

I also prefer to use a ~200 grain bullet in the .45, it shoots acceptably close to the fixed sights in my guns; and it allows for a few more bullets per pound than the ~230's. For rough figures you get 7/6 the amount of 200's/230's, (its late and I don't feel like doing the math to get exact numbers).

Robert

[lylejb]

anywhere from half COWW/ half pure to straight COWW should produce usable alloy for 45. Add 2% tin as needed for mould fill out.

Just a suggestion,

since you have plenty of 50/50 solder, you could trade for WW ingots.

Tin is much more expensive than lead, so you could probably trade 4 or 5 to 1 for WW. That would get you more material to work with for little cash outlay.

Post or watch in swappin and sellin section if your looking for a trade

[knifemaker]

For my 1911s I use a 50/50 mix of clip on wheel weights with a equal amount of pure lead and add about 2% tin for mold fillout. Great accuracy and no leading in several different 1911s.

[Cmm_3940]

Alloy isn't critical with a low intensity round like 45ACP, as long as the mold fills out and you size properly. Anything harder than dead soft should be fine. Range pickup works great. Save your expensive alloys for stuff that needs to be hard.

That being said, using what you have, a 1"³ chunk of your 50/50 Pb/Sn mixed with your wheel weights and the pure lead will work.

Edit:

Oh, and be sure to read the stickys in the 'lead and lead alloys' forum

[Forrest r]

I'd use the 7# of ww + the 15# of pure lead mixed together for the 45acp. Sometimes I think that adding tin & alloy hardness can be overrated.

I really don't know why anyone would want to use/shoot 2# (15bhn) alloy in a 45acp for a 230gr boolit that cruises @ the warp speed of around 900fps. I've shot nothing but 8-10bhn boolits in the 45acp/38spl/44spl/lite 357/44mag/9mm for decades without any issues/problems and a 8-12bhn alloy for hp's or mag loads in pistols.

Never automatically added tin either, just cast a few boolits from a new batch of alloy & looked at the edges/fillout. I can only remember 2 times since I've been casting (2+decades) that I've had to add tin to an alloy. I don't cast as much as allot of people on this forum, 300+ #'s a year since 1985 or roughly 8,000+ #'s of bullets.

Since 1990 my main alloy for pistol boolits has been nothing more than range lead from an outdoor pistol range. It averages in bhn from anywhere from 8 to 10bhn & simply works in 99% of the pistol calibers/loads that I use/shoot. And I've found that the 10bhn is actually too hard for some cast hp boolit applications, one of them being the 45acp.

Some 10bnh & 8bhn cast boolits for the 45acp, strait range lead/no tin.

Attachment 87084

Attachment 87085

The top boolit/load is a lite target load 700+fps (3.8gr bullseye) & the bottom boolit gets a 8.0gr dose of pp for a 1000fps load. The top pic is the target load 10bhn boolits. The bottom pic it the 8bhn boolits for thumper loads in the 45acp.

It only takes a couple of tight patches to clean the bbl on the 45acp with either boolit/load.

Attachment 87092

I'd start with a soft alloy without tin, you can always make your alloy harder if need be.

[Garyshome]

Thanks for the posts!

[btroj]

I agree with Forrest. I would use the 7 pounds WW and the 15 pounds pure. Plenty good for 45 ACP.

I cost most of mine from straight range scrap. If I want em a bit harder I add 1/2 pound of monotype per 22 pound pot full.

I don't add tin to any alloys by choice. Never saw a need and I tend to be cheap.

[Sgtonory]

I use straight range scrap that is pretty soft and have had no issues don't add any tin or anything.

[prs]

tonysp101, Congratulation on that nice stash of expensive tin. Either the range scrap our tinless casting members above use does have a bit of tin, or they have far greater success with detail mold fill in tumble lube designs than have I. More power to them and do try it to see if you can share their good fortune. You may will need to get that mold really hot and your alloy will probably need to approach a range between 750 & 800F, but sans tin that is not detrimental. If the fine details of the tumble lube design fail to develop, then you already have the resource at hand to remediate the flaw, add enough of the solder to net a 1% to 2% tin content. The less used to achieve the desired result (crisp detail of the castings, not hardness), the better. It is a SiN to waste tin.

prs (Who's current pistol casting alloy is approx 94.5% PB, 1.5% SN, 4.5% SB.)

[ballistim]

I'd use the 7# of ww + the 15# of pure lead mixed together for the 45acp. Sometimes I think that adding tin & alloy hardness can be overrated.

I really don't know why anyone would want to use/shoot 2# (15bhn) alloy in a 45acp for a 230gr boolit that cruises @ the warp speed of around 900fps. I've shot nothing but 8-10bhn boolits in the 45acp/38spl/44spl/lite 357/44mag/9mm for decades without any issues/problems and a 8-12bhn alloy for hp's or mag loads in pistols.

Never automatically added tin either, just cast a few boolits from a new batch of alloy & looked at the edges/fillout. I can only remember 2 times since I've been casting (2+decades) that I've had to add tin to an alloy. I don't cast as much as allot of people on this forum, 300+ #'s a year since 1985 or roughly 8,000+ #'s of bullets.

Since 1990 my main alloy for pistol boolits has been nothing more than range lead from an outdoor pistol range. It averages in bhn from anywhere from 8 to 10bhn & simply works in 99% of the pistol calibers/loads that I use/shoot. And I've found that the 10bhn is actually too hard for some cast hp boolit applications, one of them being the 45acp.

Some 10bnh & 8bhn cast boolits for the 45acp, strait range lead/no tin.

Attachment 87084

Attachment 87085

The top boolit/load is a lite target load 700+fps (3.8gr bullseye) & the bottom boolit gets a 8.0gr dose of pp for a 1000fps load. The top pic is the target load 10bhn boolits. The bottom pic it the 8bhn boolits for thumper loads in the 45acp.

It only takes a couple of tight patches to clean the bbl on the 45acp with either boolit/load.

Attachment 87092

I'd start with a soft alloy without tin, you can always make your alloy harder if need be.

I recently cast for both .45 ACP and 9mm using an alloy that came out at 8 BHN and I had very good accuracy with no leading. I'll be saving my harder lead for when I need it for other loads.

[chboats]

Why not offer to trade someone on here, your solder for ww. 10 pounds of solder should get you maybe 30 pounds of ww.

[jmort]

You could sell 10 pounds of 50/50 solder for $50.00 and get close to 50 pounds of wheel weights. I would keep it, as it is expensive to acquire and just buy some COWW ingots from a member here. I love tin. I'm pro-tin. I would even smelt some 20 to 1 if I were you. Tin is good.

[tonysp101]

Would a 20to1 mixture be good for 45acp.